Ignite
Ignite is run by locals, for locals. Founded in Seattle, the events are held around the world. Ignite is fast-paced and merciless, but most of all they're fun, thought-provoking nights, full of fresh ideas and clever insights. Speakers get five minutes to present their idea. They make use of twenty slides that auto-advance every fifteen seconds. Ignite serves as a platform for locals to connect offline and have a drink together.
Report
Martin Janse is a producer for Playlogic, and responsible for games like Fairytale Fights. He gave us a quick overview of what happened in the game world in 2010. Niels 't Hooft, writer and game expert, philosophized with us about Microsoft's Kinect, and Niki Smit presented Monobanda's anti-game Bohm. Fred van Rijswijk (C2K) presented ConquAR, a strategy game based on Layar, and Lieven van Velthoven presented Smoke Pong and Room Racers, two brand new games featuring in the Arcade exhibition.
After the break Ard Bonewald discussed the difference between empathy and experience, Giulio Grasso grazed the subject of Augmented Reality and Kerim Satirli shared his thoughts on gamification and funware. We finished off with Lex van den Berg, who talked about making a game with people living on the other side of the Atlantic, and Tomas Sala, who told us a little about his company Little Chicken, and what makes a good advergame.
We resumed the program with Joris Dorman's research into level design, and the speedy and skillful pixel artist Paul Veer. Harald Maassen told us about a game Codeglue is developing, and Marthe Jonkers showed us some of her artwork and character design. The final speaker was Frank van Gils, a game developer with a passion for usability, which has resulted in games for next generation consoles like Serious Toys' TagTiles and the Swinxs.
More information
Ignite Amsterdam 5 is part of the Arcade exhibition. Arcade is an expanding collection of old and new games and technologies. We kicked off with a collection of arcade video games operating alongside our newly developed interactive installations. Exhibition space meets arcade. Come play with us. The opening of Level 2: Arcade took place on December 18th, at Mediamatic Bank, Vijzelstraat 68, Amsterdam. Level 3: Consoles will be opened on January 22nd. The exhibition closes on March 27th. Open from 13:00 - 19:00 during the week, and on Friday and Saturday from 13:00 - 18:00.